Developing a Clinical Curriculum for Hospitalists Newly Practicing in Post-acute and Long-term Care Settings: A Pre-post Study
October 16, 2024
It is believed that educational and training opportunities for hospitalists and advanced practice providers (APPs) practicing in post-acute and long-term care residents (PALTC) is minimal, as standard training programs are typically focused on geriatrics.
To address this challenge and enhance educational opportunities, Division of Geriatric Medicine faculty, including Shauna Assadzandi, MD, Jennifer Pruskowski, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCGP, and Robin L.P. Jump, MD, PhD, recently worked toward developing a curriculum to help clinicians experienced in the care of hospitalized patients provide optimal care in the PALTC setting.
The team recently published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and highlight the topics that clinicians identified in a needs assessment, results from a pre-post knowledge assessment, and course evaluations.
Study Overview1
Method: In November 2021, clinicians participated in a needs assessment which helped define the course implementation, format, and content. Clinicians were asked to identify the most important topics to learn about caring for PALTC residents. In February 2022, the team distributed an anonymous pre-course survey that included 10 knowledge assessment questions. In July 2022, the team administered a post-course survey that included the same knowledge assessment questions, asked survey respondents to indicate whether they attended live or recorded lectures and asked them to provide general feedback about the course.
Results: 15 of 16 (94%) hospitalists and 2 of 4 (50%) APPs participated in the needs assessment. The needs assessment showed that the top choices for course content related to medication management, pain management, and distinguishing urinary tract infections from asymptomatic bacteriuria. Eight of the 16 (50%) target audience members who participated in the course completed both the pre- and post-course surveys. Of 12 lectures, the average number of sessions attended was 6.75. The average scores for the summative knowledge assessment before and after the course were 6.0 and 7.0.
Conclusion: The curriculum development project established beginning guidelines for how to develop and implement educational content to help clinicians experienced in acute care settings expand their care abilities. Suggestions for modifying curriculum development include increasing lecture offerings to accommodate various scheduling needs, emphasizing competencies in pragmatic skill areas, and more tailored assessment questions that more clearly align with the content discussed. It is the team’s hope that this course can serve as a starting point for educating clinicians without training in geriatrics who practice in PALTC settings.
Reference
1. Kowal C, Mongilardi N, El Chakhtoura NG, Lightford K, Bej TM, Assadzandi S, Pruskowski J, Heath B, Jump RLP. Developing a clinical curriculum for hospitalists newly practicing in post-acute and long-term care settings: A pre-post study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 Mar;72(3):976-978. doi: 10.1111/jgs.18742. Epub 2024 Jan 13. PMID: 38217378.
